sudden crashes on x 301

[binarybonsai]

hi there
first post here.
2 weeks agao my x301 (2774 LFG/vista 32 bit oem) arrived.i am very happy with this unit, but recently i am having trouble with sudden crashes while playing all kinds of video. no matter if it´s simple full screen playback of youtube movie , a quicktime movie or even skypevideo.after about 2o min of playback there the screen turns into some strange color mode, audio hangs and the only option is to hold down power button until restart.
i cheked the lenovo updates for drivers but could not find anything new that is not already installed( graphic / sound drivers).Anybody has similar crahes?any expirience? thanks in advance.

[visionviper]

Just to confirm: it's only with fullscreen video? So if you watch a youtube video at it's normal size it's fine but when you go fullscreen it crashed right?

[binarybonsai]

yap for youtube it´s full screen, but in skype video chat it also happens in window mode.seems somehow connected to the time of the video, around 15-20 min playback of any kind
thanks for the fast reply

[visionviper]

Hmm... it's a strange problem. Try updating your graphics drivers to the newest version and see if that helps.

[binarybonsai]

thanks for the link, i downloaded the driver but am not able to install.during the installation, after extracting the files there is an error message.the "driver is not valid for your system, ask vendor for appropriate driver".hmm i did some more research on the problem and could not find any suggestions. i guess next up i try and install an ubuntu and see if the same thing occours.in the end of course i would like to run the vista smoothly...maybe a fresh windows install but i wonder because the system is basically fresh.thanks for the help again

just checked again, the driver link is version is 15.13.1.1688 current installed version is 7.15.10.1556

[visionviper]

It is the right link - the version for the driver I linked you to is 15.13.1.1688 and 7.15.10.1688. Why Intel uses two version numbers I have no idea. The X301 uses a GM45 chipset which is supported by that driver. Did you make sure to select the right operating system from the drop-down?

[binarybonsai]

hmmm..... i tried to download the driver again for vista ultimate 32 bit.also tried the to choose the vista 32 link.no difference. the two driver names seems to be same no idea why using different numbers.i feel little stupid i must admit, for all i know this must be the proper driver but my system will not accept and always comes up with the same error message....i switched off all antivirus ( avast home ) and firewall setting in vista control panel.i am new to vista so i am not sure if there is something that prevents me from installing...i got the right privileges.
thanks for your patience

[binarybonsai]

ahhh, much better.after running out of options for the graphic driver i switched my attention to the audio driver.it seems that my version was not the latest release. after extensive testing (running qt 1080p skipping back and forth, while running a divX movie and watching full screen youtube at once)everything seems fine now. no hang ups no crash......later i will check the skype video chat.i will let you know about any crashes from that...
thanks for your help & patience again

[visionviper]

I'm glad you were able to figure it out - audio drivers would not have been my next choice!

[binarybonsai]

ahh, please let me know what your next step would be.everything works fine for regular video.this night i talked on skype (video) for about 2 hrs.during that 2hrs the system crashed the hard way as before twice....skype is my connection to my gf in japan so any help to solve that would be so nice. in the mean time i will reinstall skype and do some more reading.thx again....

[visionviper]

Re-installing Skype would be a good next step. If that doesn't help try uninstalling your webcam drivers and then installing the latest webcam drivers.

[binarybonsai]

ok ok , lost in more crashes ....after reinstalling skype and re-installing the webcam driver this morning, while watching a movie on google video in full screen mode, there was the same hard crash i know so well by now.display "shreds" and hanging sound.while some days ago it seemed that this would happen after about 20 min of video it proved wrong today.this time about after 7 min the same thing happened. after reading a lot about clean reinstall, but only having an oem version without dvd, i decidet to get a vista install dvd and try a clean minimal install without all the extra stuff that came with the oem. once i get hold of the dvd i will go for the ubuntu option aswell to check if something similar happens. any frash ideas are more than welcome.

[visionviper]

I wouldn't buy Vista (if that is what your thinking) with Windows 7 coming so soon.

I would try doing the oem recovery before trying a clean wipe/install.

[binarybonsai]

after reinstalling the oem version, i ran into the same kind of hard crashes than before....i decidet to contact lenovo, hopefully after sending the machine to them problems will be fixed...thanks for the help, i will let you know what happens after they return a hopefully full functional laptop.